still blowing with rain forecast tomorrow.
02/02/2009, HopeTown Abacos

A lovely day!

The wind continues, so we've spent a quiet day reading our extensive book collection and doing odd jobs on the boat.

This morning I found a small allan screw set screw on the rear deck. Upon further investigation, it turned out to have vibrated out of my new solar panel supports..... further study showed that most of the screws needed attention....

Removing the bimini canvass revealed that the new stainless steel bows are starting to rust at the edges...

Super clean Louise jumps to the rescue!

We spent four hours cleaning and waxing the hardware and relaxing at the same time.... a wonderful way to spend a day (after doing two loads of laundry and having fresh water showers at the marina this morning).

A quick dinghy ride across the harbour to the internet cafe (bar) and then back to the boat in time to join our neighbours for wine and cheese on their new boat as the sun approaches the yard arm!

Life's a bitch and then you die!

glen

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blowing hard from the north, cool!
02/01/2009, Hope Town, Bahamas

With the wind blowing at 30-40mph from the north, we're happy to be in a safe port with good holding, and great services nearby.

The toerails have been completely sanded and oiled, both the older bikes repaired ( I got to take apart the sturmey-archer rear wheel gear/brake mechanism and figure out how it works!).

Louise is adding to her glass collection, and has finished polishing all of the stainless steel on the boat (which is quite alot).

With the wind from the north, the solar panels are "facing" south with the result that output exceeds 30Amps (360 watts) at noon with full sun. Obviously orientation is VERY important, and I am quite happy with the results to date. The watermaker continues to work perfectly and I'm going to have to find some new projects to keep me busy.

Louise is very happy at our current location, and with the longer stopovers, we're getting the opportunity to meet several other cruisers and locals and learn about different locations/facilities/equipment.

The outer islands are very scarcely populated so it's nice to have several good restaurants, pubs, grocery stores, etc to chose from. Things will be different as we head further south into the more remote areas.

We'll spend a couple more days here waiting for settled weather and then start exploring again. Our friends Patsy and George arrive in 10 days, so we probably won't go too far!

All the best!

glen

Comments [1]

west winds 40-50kph
01/30/2009, Hope Town, Abacos

We've spent the past few days exploring the island on the bicycles and meeting lots of the local folks.

We cycled to the very south end of the island and met some works building a $25M mansion for a movie star at the southern tip of the island. The main house is 30,000 sq.ft. with several out buildings and a private marina for the floating toys..... I should have been in the movies!

I spent a lovely morning visiting the local museum, followed by an afternoon visiting Winer Malone, the local boatbuilder (80+ years old) who is still building lovely 16' sailing dinghies with hand tools in the shed behind his house. He's just announced he is stopping taking orders until the current backlog has been eliminated. A wonderful gentleman with wonderful handtools. He doesn't even steam or bend the wood, preferring to find the correct trees with the appropriate curves.

Louise is in the ocean daily, snorkelling along the reefs, looking for beach glass.......we saw a pretty 3'+ barracuda yesterday which worried her sonewhat.... she removed her jewellery so she didn't look like bait.

We visited the famous lighthouse again, and I was able to help Jeffery ( the lighthouse keeper) to light the lattern. The Kerosene lattern is about twice the size of a standard coleman lattern c/w delicate mantles which last 4-6 weeks. The mechanical elegance and simplicity is wonderful and reminds me of the old sawmill at Lac-en-Coeur.

The winds have picked up and are blowing from the west today, and expected to swing North tomorrow bring more cold winds from Canada, so we'll relax a couple of more days then see where the wind blows us!

glen

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